After being rejected for "Survivor" three times and "The Amazing Race" once, Paul Reynolds found himself doing a reality check of his own in 2004. He needed a goal -- "Goals are important," says the fourth-grade teacher -- to help channel his energy. But what?

"I thought to myself, I should create my own adventure," Reynolds said last month during a training climb up Mount Rogers, at 5,729 feet the highest point in Virginia.

So he did.

"Why don't I just hike the highest point in every state?" he asked himself. "That sounds like fun."

He didn't realize it, but he had just joined a select and eclectic group known as Highpointers -- folks whose goal is to stand atop the highest point in each of the United States.

According to the Highpointers Club, only 157 folks have ever stood on the highest ground in all 50 states, the first being John Vincent "Vin" Hoeman who topped out in 1966. Even among the Lower 48 club, the total number of summiters is only 277.

Why climb to the highest point in every state, be it Florida's 345-foot Britton Hill, the lowest of the high, or 14,497-foot Mount Whitney in California?

"It's kind of like any athlete," says Reynolds. "You want to push yourself. You want to see what you can accomplish."

For Reynolds, that push began in October 2004 right here in North Carolina -- when he drove to the gift shop parking lot atop Mount Mitchell, parked and strolled 30 yards or so to the 6,684-foot summit.

And that prompts a clarification about what, precisely, Highpointing is.

"The primary goal of highpointing," says Reynolds, "is not the same goal as hiking. The primary goal is to reach the highest point of each state, and each state has certain approved ways to the summit."

In the case of Mount Mitchell, there's the Mount Mitchell Trail, one of the most challenging hikes in the state, covering 11.2 miles and gaining 3,670 feet of elevation. Or there's the gift shop ascent. Both are sanctioned by the Highpointers Club.

This certainly isn't to suggest that all state summits are a walk in the parking lot.

Working east to west

Reynolds makes clear that his goal is the Lower 48. Jetting to Hawaii to score 13,796-foot Mauna Kea is a bit pricey on a teacher's salary. And Alaska's 20,320-foot Denali, the highest point in North America? Since 1932, 100 climbers have died on the mountain.

Temperatures of 95 degrees below zero have been recorded -- and that's at just 14,500 feet -- and wind gusts have exceeded 150 mph: Climbers have literally been blown off the mountain. Reynolds has no interest in Denali, either.

After bagging Mount Mitchell, Reynolds began summiting in earnest in 2005, with a strategy of working east to west, lowest to highest. Early conquests included the likes of the 448-foot Ebright Azimuth in Delaware (located in a trailer park) and Iowa's 1,670-foot Hawkeye Point, which Reynolds says is "at the end of a pig trough on someone's farm."

Some of the summits have been anticlimactic. Mississippi's 807-foot Woodall Mountain "looks like a big zit in the middle of a field, but very cool." Some have featured artwork: "Mount Sunflower in Kansas has a big sunflower made of railroad spikes." And some don't even require that you get out of the car.

"In Nebraska, there was no hiking," says Reynolds, who is 50 and teaches at Burlington's Eastlawn Elementary School. It was a drive-up." (5,429-foot Panorama Point is along a dirt road a mile from the Colorado border. Watch for buffalo, cautions a commemorative marker.)

In fact, several high points fall into the drive-by category, allowing Reynolds to bag three summits in a day on three occasions: Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas; Mississippi, Alabama and Florida; and Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

His first challenge

But for every Britton Hill there's a Mount Marcy. Until Marcy, Reynolds' biggest challenges involved having the right change in his pocket (it's $5 in Nebraska, the top of which is on private land, as is the case with 14 state summits) or being sure to leave his pet snake at home (no pets allowed on Illinois' 1,235-foot Charles Mound).

Marcy, a remote 5,344-foot peak in New York's Adirondacks region, proved Reynolds' first big test. Accustomed to the lower, more accessible summits of the East, Reynolds set out wearing navy blue khakis and a dark T-shirt, an outfit better suited to sightseeing than summiting.

He also set out on an ill-equipped stomach ("I didn't beef up on the carb enough"). Baking from the summer heat, he took out a knife midway up the mountain and hacked off his pant legs. The carb shortage he had to hike through.

"I really jumped up the learning curve on that hike," says Reynolds.

That, he says, involved buying a pair of hiking poles and getting in better physical condition. (Though when pressed on the latter, he mentions the Mount Rogers training climb, then shifts the subject: "It's really about being prepared mentally.")

When Reynolds summits, he tends to avoid ceremony.

"I usually say, 'Here I am. What time is it?'" For log book purposes.

Lately, though, he's started wearing tie-dye shirts on his summit attempts. They're both functional -- "If someone needed to find you, you'd be wearing something very obvious" -- and fun -- "I have an affinity toward the groovy side of life."

"I was born in the '50s," he adds. "You have to tap into your inner hippie."

His summer goals

So far, Reynolds' inner hippie has climbed 36 high points. This summer, he plans to spend 17 of his days off from school adding five summits to his collection. His five toughest yet.

"So far, the highest I've climbed is Harney Peak [7,242 feet] in South Dakota," says Reynolds. In order, he plans this summer to climb 8,749-foot Guadalupe Peak in Texas, 13,161-foot Wheeler Peak in New Mexico, 12,633-foot Humphreys Peak in Arizona, 13,528-foot Kings Peak in Utah and his first fourteener, 14,440-foot Mount Elbert in Colorado.

That would up his total to 41.

From here, though, Reynolds says his pace will likely slow. As he moves farther west, the climbs remain high and become more technical.

"Rainier [14,411 feet, in Washington] and Hood [11,239 feet, in Oregon] are volcanoes," says Reynolds. "I think they'll be difficult. Gannett Peak [13,804 feet] in Wyoming is the most remote, involving a 40-mile round trip, and Granite [12,799 feet, in Montana] requires technical climbing. I'll need to take some rock-climbing classes.

"It might just get down to one summit a year," he says.

And if it takes 10 years to reach the top of that last state, that's fine. It's not how he gets to the top or how fast that matters. It's just that he gets there.

"It's been my goal for the last 20 years to try something new every day of my life. Doing these high points goes above and beyond."

"A lot of this," he adds, "is attitude. I'm not going to give up."

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